Happy St. Patrick’s Day…March Madness?

Sorry sport fans…just trying to get your attention. We do have March Madness though…MMM…Music March Madness!

So…it seems March is coming in nice and gentle, like a lamb…so you all know what that means…if you don’t walk under ladders or have other superstitions…it means March’s weather will go out like a lion…meaning some serious snow type blizzard is due. We have had some big blizzards in March. I can remember they years of performing at Seven Springs Ski Resort, many a March we found ourselves having to stay there over the weekend because we were caught in a blizzard…and what a place to get caught in snow. That place comes alive when it happens. The next day, they usually get the roads pretty clear to allow all the skiers access to come up and spend some serious dollars…oh and have fun too.

Those days are long gone and I’ve had my share of dealing with driving in snow, so I’m just fine, as they say…”hunkering down” and staying home, inside looking out at it..as long as the electricity stays on that is.

So DMH will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day with our awesome Peppermint O’Patty Lattes. Sorry, we don’t have the Irish brew (no alcohol, we’re a music school after all) but that won’t keep us from decorating and putting up a bit o’ the green. Ya know…Lil’ Davy is part Irish…on his mudder’s side ya know!

So, I’m going to talk a bit about our Performance teaching here at David’s Music House. I have said since the day we opened (10.10.10) that we do much more than teach how to play an instrument or sing inside a lesson room. There are lots of music teachers all around who do that and they do it well. I am very proud of our DMH Teachers and how amazing they are at providing music lessons. DMH, on the other hand, was created to do so much more than that. It is my clear passion to teach our students what to do when they get up on a stage! So here’s a few changes we are putting into place to do a better job of that.

Currently, we have our teachers each host a Student Showcase once a month to get the students they teach some “on stage experience” and perhaps to learn to perform with some other students in bands or ensembles. Now we are kicking that performance training up a notch by providing a path of performance training that arrives at the Student Showcase as a final accomplishment. We are starting “DMH Student Open Stage Performances”. Open Stage is only for DMH students and can be any day a student and teacher want to give it try.

Our teachers will begin getting students up on the stage during their regular lesson days, and show them how to use a microphone, how to talk to an audience and say more than my name is…and to begin learning how to show an audience that they, as a performer, are actually engaging the audience and letting them know they are thankful for their attention and perhaps applause. They can even perform a couple of songs, up to a max of 15 minutes.

As little as one or a maximum of 5 students may perform on any giving evening. This will be a learning performance, meaning they may make mistakes, start over, or whatever. It’s just fun and informal but a teachable moment. After a student has performed a few Open Stages and are more polished AND their teacher feels they are ready, they will then step up, eventually, to the Student Showcase, where at this point, they will know how to engage and thank an audience.

The intent here is to make Student Showcases a goal to strive towards and in the meantime, be much more prepared to actually entertain an audience, once they perform at a Showcase.

This will be a great step by step method for students to gain not only experience of being on a stage, but to actually entertain an audience.

We are excited about this new Performance service, which will begin in April. It’s just another way David’s Music House is your place to get the best Total Music Experience around.

As always, we are all so thankful to each of you parents and students for choosing and being loyal fans of David’s Music House.